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    Favourite overseas shops

    A mention of Target on another thread made me think "God, I love Target." Mainly because it's chock-full of cool.things you can't get easily over here. Pretty sure I bought my first Mike & Ike Hot Tamales in a Target (although it might have been a Walgreens), Mrs Thistle always finds armfuls of Snoopy stuff, baseball card repacks, cinnamon rolls. Good memories.

    I know to Americans it's a pretty basic store but to me it's ace. Anyone else got a favourite overseas shop?

    #2
    Target in Australia is terrible.

    But on the positive side, years ago when I used to go to Hong Kong I enjoyed Shanghai Tang, although I only ever bought one thing there.

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      #3
      From when I started going to New York in the late eighties I would religiously visit Dave's workwear store, Tower Records on 4th & Broadway and the Phat Farm store on my first free day. Two of those have gone now and I haven't got to the third (Dave's) for ages. Would love to be able to spend one more afternoon bouncing between them all.

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        #4
        This is beautiful. Eliseyev Emporium

        It wasn't quite as poshly stocked when I first went, but it was always lovely.



        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliseyev_Emporium_(Saint_Petersburg)



        And just along from it on Nevsky Prospekt, Dom Knigi (House of Books), also impressive.



        In the other Evil Empire, bookshops in Manhattan (Barnes & Noble near or on Union Square) Amoeba Music and Larry Edmunds Bookshop (specialist film bookstore) in Hollywood.

        Other than that, the bookshops of art galleries and museums just about anywhere that has art galleries and museums.
        Last edited by MsD; 01-06-2020, 22:47.

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          #5
          Oh my. I haven't seen it since Soviet times.

          The Barnes and Noble on the north side of Union Square is the nicest one I have been in, though I still mourn the loss of the original, which was a few blocks up Fifth Avenue and made its name selling text books.

          I once purposely lengthened a layover at Heathrow so I could go to Foyles and Sportspages.

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            #6
            Various small leftie bookshops in Madrid; the club shop at the Calder?n; Calmera bike shop near Atocha. I can always spend hours and fortunes in a Fnac.

            We lived just along the road from the bottom of the Rastro (huge Sunday market) and on various early afternoon walks we picked up loads of stuff from the flea/junk end that would get left in the gutter if not sold. And we bought lots, too in case you thought we were freeloaders.
            In this house at the moment (off the top of my head) are a Mundial 82 towel, some tapas dishes with shrimps or mussels on, a roll of remnant 60s wallpaper, loads of books, a Republican flag, a vintage cycling jacket, a plastic tablecloth with the map of Spain, plastic fruit n veg, an ashtray of the Spanish greyhound assoc., various vintage key rings and badges...
            so my favourite shop is the Rastro, especially the junk-y bottom end.

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              #7
              As a child on French holidays, the hypermarch?. Food aside, the fact that they sold toys and books as well was just amazing. We'd get the French versions of Asterix and the like, a great tool for improving our language skills without us realising it.

              God, I am so middle class.

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                #8
                The department stores in formerly Soviet cities that all seem to be called something like Zum.

                Like Figs, El Rastro (not just the one in Madrid, there was one in Valencia too)

                The Solar do Vinho do Porto, part off licence, part warehouse, part bar with amazing terrace overlooking the Douro.

                The Brattleboro food co-op

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by ad hoc View Post

                  Like Figs, El Rastro (not just the one in Madrid, there was one in Valencia too)


                  Next to Mestalla on a Sunday morning. Maybe it used to be better as nowadays it's full of crap.

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                    #10
                    stationery and office supplies shops in other countries are always good.

                    i like Kaut Bullinger in Munich

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Sporting View Post

                      Next to Mestalla on a Sunday morning. Maybe it used to be better as nowadays it's full of crap.
                      Oh it was always full of crap. It was more an experience than a place to buy stuff. It didn't used to be out by the Mestalla though, it was much more central

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                        the Mestalla
                        Point of pedantic order (you're a language specialist so I'm sure you won't mind): Mestalla has no definite article preceding it.

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                          #13
                          Pull and Bear in Spain. They may have outlets elsewhere but it's only there that I've seen it. I was always impressed with their clothing.

                          Seven Elevens are always a nice reminder I'm in the states too

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Sporting View Post

                            Point of pedantic order (you're a language specialist so I'm sure you won't mind): Mestalla has no definite article preceding it.
                            What fuck?

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                              #15
                              We’ve sought out equivalents in other parts of Spain but were usually disappointed with the exception of El Jueves in Seville (la Vaca que rie playing cards, bundle of 80s cycling mags...).

                              Lisbon’s is great, though- 1st went in 84 and wished we’d had much more luggage; and one in Brussels where we did (cycling jerseys, ‘breweriana’ and ms f bought loads of 50s and 60s clothes 10p each, some of which she still has (1982)

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                A mention of Target on another thread made me think "God, I love Target." Mainly because it's chock-full of cool.things you can't get easily over here. Pretty sure I bought my first Mike & Ike Hot Tamales in a Target (although it might have been a Walgreens), Mrs Thistle always finds armfuls of Snoopy stuff, baseball card repacks, cinnamon rolls. Good memories.

                                I know to Americans it's a pretty basic store but to me it's ace. Anyone else got a favourite overseas shop?
                                With you on Target, and my kids love it as well. We're also fond of a Galeria Kaufhof in Germany.

                                Years ago in America I liked Millers Outpost for buying Levi's to take home, being less than half the price of the UK. And second hand music shops, which were much more prevalent and better stocked than in provincial England.

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Foot of Astaire's View Post
                                  Pull and Bear in Spain. They may have outlets elsewhere but it's only there that I've seen it. I was always impressed with their clothing.

                                  Seven Elevens are always a nice reminder I'm in the states too
                                  Yes, 7 Elevens are useful anywhere in the world. We also loved Family Mart in Japan, those shops were a journey of discovery.

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                                    #18
                                    The 6th floor of KaDeWe is a perennial favourite. Otherwise, Titus Berlin for skateboard t-shirts that I'm probably too old for, and any branch of Spar in Germany, for some reason.

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                                      #19
                                      Xintiandi in Shanghai, a block of old style houses and buildings (in a city with very few old things or even faux old) full of restaurants, bars, and little shops. Very touristy, but wonderful

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                        But on the positive side, years ago when I used to go to Hong Kong I enjoyed Shanghai Tang, although I only ever bought one thing there.
                                        Wise move. I went the original Shanghai Tang shop when visiting HK in the late '90s and made a few purchases from the sale racks. One was a blue silk Mao jacket which made me look like Ernst Stavro Blofeld on a night out at Studio 54. This wasn't a look that I could ever really relax into back in northern Europe. Not long afterwards they opened a shop in London, near Sloane Square, and once it was readily available (for London residents, at least) a lot of the mystique fell away.

                                        I enjoy going to pretty much any supermarket in other countries. El Corte Ingles department stores in Spain and Portugal can be good, although it's a big chain and I suspect that we have only been to flagship sites. This may partly be a nostalgia thing due to department stores in the UK being so diminished these days.

                                        The Tintin shop in Brussels usually has stuff that the London shop on Floral Street doesn't and has a great position just off the Grand Place.

                                        Years ago some friends look us to the open air market in the old 'Olympic' stadium in Warsaw, which was quite something, though more as a spectacle than a comfortable buying experience. That is long gone now.
                                        Last edited by Benjm; 02-06-2020, 08:54.

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post

                                          With you on Target, and my kids love it as well. We're also fond of a Galeria Kaufhof in Germany.

                                          Years ago in America I liked Millers Outpost for buying Levi's to take home, being less than half the price of the UK. And second hand music shops, which were much more prevalent and better stocked than in provincial England.
                                          There's not much I can add to this thread, not being the most-travelled person in the world who was even amazed by a Walgreens, but when I went to San Francisco I went to Amoeba Records on Haight Ashbury and found the DVD of Exile starring John Simm - which was filmed up the road from where I live.

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Foot of Astaire's View Post
                                            Pull and Bear in Spain. They may have outlets elsewhere but it's only there that I've seen it. I was always impressed with their clothing.

                                            Seven Elevens are always a nice reminder I'm in the states too
                                            Plenty of Pull & Bears in London (one on Oxford St near my office, and a couple in shopping centres I've seen elsewhere). The quality of the clothing isn't great in UK stores though.

                                            Don Quijote in Japan is fun, just because it's the stereotype shop you expect to find in Japan. Always liked the homewares at Mudo in Turkey, and some of the clothes were nice too. And Pie Face in Australia, because I have no self control when it comes to stodgy foods.

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by Giggler View Post

                                              There's not much I can add to this thread, not being the most-travelled person in the world who was even amazed by a Walgreens, but when I went to San Francisco I went to Amoeba Records on Haight Ashbury and found the DVD of Exile starring John Simm - which was filmed up the road from where I live.
                                              We went to Amoeba Records in Hollywood two years ago and son was enthralled by it, not least because he already followed them on Instagram. It was incredibly well stocked.

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                                                #24
                                                Fnac in France, Hot Shot Records in Bremen, the Bremen branch of Karstadt Sport, an old style sports shop, I also liked the Spars in Slovenia, familiar and totally different at the same time.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Fannie May (not the GSE, the chocolatier). Mainly for these.

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